April Issue 2002

On March 11, the Catholic League went on a tear against the American Red Cross. Four hours later we got what we wanted: a reversal of its newly minted policy banning religious speech at its functions and a much-deserved apology. The pressure we put on the American Red Cross was enormous. We asked over 100 organizations [...]

In the last edition of Catalyst, we reported on the efforts of New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer to try to close down crisis pregnancy centers throughout the state. On March 1, he announced that he had withdrawn his subpoenas. Spitzer, who works closely with NARAL and other pro-abortion groups, targeted the abortion alternative centers for [...]

William A. Donohue Every priest, religious and Catholic lay person I admire is furious with the extent of the pederasty problem in the clergy and the way it’s been handled. Indeed, if someone claims to be a good Catholic and isn’t outraged, I’d begin to wonder. It always hurts more when those whom we trust let [...]

By Russell Shaw In the last several years the culture war against the Catholic Church has been extended to a new battleground—the writing of history. It is not the first time this has happened, since it has long been known that he who gets to tell the story of the past his way can reasonably hope [...]

The Catholic League began its protest of an art exhibit at a Gainesville college on February 28. On March 12, we declared victory. It was on February 28 that we learned of an art exhibit at Santa Fe Community College in Gainesville, Florida; it began on February 8 and was to run through March 29. The [...]

News reports on the problem of priests engaged in the sexual molestation of youngsters led to a rash of cartoons lampooning the Church. Clearly the most objectionable ones were those that portrayed all priests as predators. Newspapers which ran such cartoons included the New York Times, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Dayton Daily News, South Bend Tribune, North Country Times (Escondido, [...]

On March 5, the New York Times pulled a cartoon by Ted Rall that mocks widows of the 9-11 terror attack for being greedy. The cartoon was fed to the website of the New York Times by Universal Press Syndicate and was taken down when widows complained. Christine Mohan, the newspaper’s spokeswoman, said the "subject matter was inappropriate." Yet on [...]

Massachusetts Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly has announced an ambitious plan to deal with the problem of child molestation by priests in the Boston Archdiocese. He proposes to involve his office in the recruitment, selection, training and monitoring of priests. We did not hold back in denouncing Reilly’s plan. Here is what we told the media: [...]

On February 20, the U.S. Supreme Court heared oral arguments in Zelman v. Doris Simmons-Harris, the case that involves the Cleveland voucher program. The Catholic League has filed an amicus curiae brief supporting the constitutionality of the program. The day before the hearing we explained to media why our interest in this issue is so strong: "In [...]

In the January/February Catalyst, several examples of anti-Catholicism on the sly were mentioned in an article by that name. One of the listings was a critical statement on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that deserves clarification. The newspaper had reported that a nightclub, Chapel of Blues Club, was formerly a Catholic church. We questioned the tone of the article and wondered [...]